Coffee A Review Of Possible Health Benefits Biology Essay

Coffee A Review Of Possible Health Benefits Biology Essay Coffee: A Review of Possible Health Benefits. One of the worlds most widely consumed beverages, coffee, has been enjoyed by people for centuries. The coffee shrub, a bush bearing rich green leaves, pale flowers, and vivid red berries, stems from East Africa, and was introduced to the Americas in the early 1700s. Today, the United States accounts for nearly a quarter of the worldwide yearly consumption of more than 12 billion pounds of coffee grown globally. Fifty-four per cent of Americans consume coffee daily as coffee continues to grow in popularity. The average U.S. coffee drinker consumes more than three cups of coffee per day, usually in the morning for a quick boost from the caffeine. Aside from giving its drinkers a morning lift, research shows coffee may help protect against a host of health problems, including type 2 diabetes, Parkinsons disease, cardiovascular disease, and various types of cancers. With thousands of studies being conducted on coffee over the last forty years, some advising a reduction on the consumption, others promoting coffees intake, people suffering from type 2 diabetes may be surprised to learn about some of coffees health perks. The most common type of diabetes, type 2 diabetes, makes up the majority of the American cases of the disease. When an insufficient amount of insulin is produced in the body, type 2 diabetes develops. The lack of insulin in the body causes an increase of glucose in the blood. This causes insulin resistance. When insulin resistance happens, blood sugar levels increase. If blood sugar levels remain too high, the pancreas may be at risk of damage, resulting in serious, life-threatening health problems. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Womens Hospital analyzed information collected from over 125,000 study participants for almost two decades and discovered a possible link between a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and consuming up to three cups of caffeinated coffee each day. Those who drank more than six cups of coffee each day lessened the risk of diabetes in women by 30% and in men by more than 50%. Another study conducted by researchers from the University of Sao Paulo in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil found that in nearly 70,000 women who had coffee during lunchtime, they were 33% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to those who did not drink coffee. Another survey that pooled data from 18 different studies counting half a million participants from over the last 40 years revealed an additional 7% less risk of diabetes development for each cup of coffee consumed past 4 cups. Dr. Peter Martin, head of the Institute for Coffee Studies at Vande rbilt University, describes coffee as having a multitude of compounds, including chlorogenic acid, a chemical that increases the bodys ability to remove and organize blood sugar, therefore reducing the development of type 2 diabetes. Another seriously debilitating condition, Parkinsons disease, currently affects nearly two million Americans. Parkinsons disease is a condition caused when nerve cells in the brain fail to generate dopamine, a monoamine neurotransmitter in the brain which is needed in order for the central nervous system to operate correctly. During subsequent stages of Parkinsons disease, victims develop indications of tremors and bradykinesia, causing decreased movement ability. Since the general population is getting older, more and more Americans are expected to be diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in the future. Lifestyle may have the strongest influence on the development of Parkinsons disease, but scientists are now considering nutritional sources like coffee as possible deterrents against the disorder. During a 22-year analysis of nearly 7,000 men and women, ages 50 to 79, researchers found participants who consumed coffee in large quantities, ten or more cups per day, lowered their risk of developing Parkinsons disease by an astounding 75%. In another study conducted over a 30 year span by the Honolulu Heart Program, researchers studied over 8,000 Japanese-American men and the link between coffee consumption and the development of Parkinsons disease. Coffee drinkers in this study were less likely to develop Parkinsons disease. As a matter of fact, those who never drank coffee were five times more likely to develop Parkinsons disease compared to the coffee consuming men who participated in this study. An additional study on coffees inverse affects on Parkinsons disease development from the Harvard School of Public Health used 135,000 people from various backgrounds. The study group participants who drank more than four cups of coffee on a daily basis lessened their risk of Parkinsons disease development by 50%. In more recent studies conducted by Vanderbilt Institute for Coffee Studies, the only institute in the country dedicated to studying the health effects of coffee, found that individuals who drank coffee throughout the day, not just in the morning, slashed their chances of developing Parkinsons disease by as much as 80%. Three of these studies discovered the more people drank coffee, the more they decreased the chances of Parkinsons disease development. Similar to the caffeine found in coffee, the brain produces a natural form of this xanthine chemical called adenosine. The brain of a person who is at risk of Parkinsons disease produces too much adenosine and not enough dopamine. When a significant amount of caffeine is ingested, the chemical blocks adenosine receptors in the brain. When these receptors are blocked and adenosine production is cut off, more dopamine is produced, thus decreasing a risk of Parkinsons disease development. In the past, many studies named coffee as a contributing factor in the development of different forms of cardiovascular diseases. The general consensus was that coffee raised cholesterol levels in drinkers, creating an increased risk of cardiovascular problems. However, the majority of those studies stemmed from Europe where the process of how coffee is made just before consumption differs from the way Americans prepare the beverage. Unlike many Europeans who enjoy coffee that has been prepared using a percolator, a French press, or the Scandinavian boiling method, Americans generally filter their coffee. The filtering process seems to eliminate most of the harmful cholesterol found in coffee. More recent studies made an adjustment for American coffee drinkers and found that in individuals over 65 years of age with average blood pressure, those who consumed one cup or more each day decreased their chance of coronary heart disease mortality by more than 40%. Within this same group, coffee drinkers also seemed to experience a reduced risk of heart valve issues. Harvard researchers found long-lasting cardiovascular health advantages related to regular coffee drinking. In one study, nearly 40,000 disease free men and women ages 40 to 64, were tracked from 1990 to 2000. The result of this study showed women who drank coffee on a regular basis experienced a massive 55% decrease in cardiovascular related deaths. An additional studys findings presented during the American Heart Associations 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in San Francisco, suggested an 18% reduction in the risk of heart rhythm disturbances in individuals who drank at least cup of coffee each day. In 2006, the Dept. of Nutrition at the University of Oslo, Norway reported coffee drinking may also reduce inflammation and the risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women. According to the American Heart Association, phytochermicals like cafestol, flavonoids, and other micronutrients found in coffee may have reversing affects on the development of cardiovascular disease. Coffees phytochemicals along with antioxidants and chlorogenic acid are believed to have defensive properties against cardiovascular problems by reducing the build up of fat collected by arteries. Coffee has also earned a negative reputation regarding the development of cancer. Many health studies of the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the labeling of coffee as a promoting substance in the progression of various types of cancer. One of the earliest studies conducted on the subject, released in 1971 by American scientists for British medical journal, The Lancet, named coffee as a possible cause for bladder cancer. Ten years later in 1981, researchers from Harvard again linked coffee to various forms of pancreatic cancers. However, in the mid 1990s, more research showed insufficient associations between coffee consumption and these types of cancer, especially when an adjustment was made for smoking. Because individuals who were heavy cigarette smokers also tended to drink large amounts of coffee, research often made invalid connections between the two habits, confusing health problems that may be caused by either. By the late 1990s, more and more studies began to crop up disproving initial results of research finding coffee to be adversary to health. In more recent years, new studies suggest chemicals found in coffee may even have an inverse affect on health and could possibly help protect against many types of cancers. According to a 2003 study conducted by researcher Francesca Bravi from Milans Institute of Pharmacological Research, individuals who consume coffee are 41% less likely to develop liver cancer compared to those who do not drink coffee. In a study spanning the course of two decades, scientist Kathryn Wilson from Channing Laboratory of Harvard used data taken from 50,000 male participants. In this study, 5% of male participants who consumed more than six cups of coffee each day experienced a 60% decreased risk of developing prostate cancer. Likewise for women, coffee is now also being associated with having protective value against some of the most common forms of cancer affecting female reproductive organs. According to the American Cancer Society, the most common form of cancer affecting reproductive health for women is uterine cancer. A 2009 Mayo Clinic study finds that out of a 20,000 women study, those who drank two to three cups of coffee each day were 30% less likely to develop uterine or endometrial cancer. Study leaders Thomas Hofmann, Ph.D., professor and head of the Institute for Food Chemistry at the University of Munster in Germany, and Veronika Somoza, Ph.D., deputy director of the German Research Center for Food Chemistry in Garching, claim coffee drinking could possibly avert colon cancer from developing. Studies suggest people who consume four or more cups of coffee each day reduce the risk of developing colon cancer by about 25%. Researchers Hofmann and Somoza identified the protection coffee offers ag ainst cancer stems from the antioxidant compounds found in the beverage. These compounds prompt phase II enzymes, living cells in the body which protect against chemical carcinogenesis. Chemical carcinogenesis is the process where cells transform from being normal, to precancerous, to cancerous. Chlorogenic acid found in coffee destroys the damaging free radicals in the body which contribute to diseases, including different types of cancer. Another anticancer chemical found in coffee, methylpyridinium, forms when coffee beans are roasted. Methylpyridinium can be found in caffeinated, decaffeinated, and even instant versions of the beverage. With a number of recent studies evaluating the possible link between drinking coffee and the reduction of risks pertaining to the development of Parkinsons disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain types of cancers, individuals suffering from these disorders may find some relief in the next pot of coffee they perk. Although dated reviews concluded coffee drinking could cause greater risks of these diseases, more recent findings suggest just the opposite. Although the latest studies on the medicinal and therapeutic uses of coffee are shedding new light on possible health advantages, researchers say additional investigation on the components of coffee and their effects on the body should be considered. While doctors are not yet advising patients to consume more coffee than usual, individuals who consume coffee may continue enjoying this population beverage as part of a balanced diet without worry of any adverse health effects progressing due to its consumption.

An Analysis of Paul Laurence Dunbars We Wear the Mask :: We Wear the Mask Essays

An Analysis of Paul Laurence Dunbar's We Wear the Mask It has been said many time that "You can't judge a book by its cover" and "Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes"? A person may appear one way on the outside but may be feeling the total opposite on the inside. He may be masking his true emotions with a false appearance. In "We Wear the Mask" it seems that Paul Laurence Dunbar is conveying this message to his audience. The African-American slaves of the early United States are prime examples of how emotions can be repressed. This group of people was treated with such disrespect and humiliation that it is understandable why they would mask their true thoughts and their emotions. To make their daily lives easier, they spoke and acted the ways that their white owners dictated. Their lives had, to a point, been taken away from them. But, there were some things that could never be taken away from them: their inner strength and their spirituality. No matter how a slave was treated, how hard he had to work, or how little he had, hedid have total control of his own thoughts and beliefs. Those things could never be taken from him. This poem cries out with the hurt that African-Americans, throughout history, suffered with. To be able to endure this daily persecution, these people had to draw on their inner strength. When Dunbar wrote,"With torn and bleeding hearts we smile," it is obvious of the agony felt and of how a smile is sometimes worn in order to camouflage one's true emotions. A deep, religious faith was a saving grace to these people as a whole. One's spirituality can carry them through even the most dreadful situations. This idea is evident when Dunbar penned the lines, "we smile,but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise." When all else had failed, slaves could pray and feel that God had heard them. At last, their cries would be heard, their prayers answered, andtheir hearts relieved. We all have hide our emotions at one time or another. We put on false faces and pretend for many different reasons. We all lie, in one form or another, be it a big lie or a little white one. Whether it be to save our self or the feelings of another we should all remember the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Luke 6:31).

Television, What A Waste Of Time :: essays research papers

Television, What A Waste of Time How much does television mean to you? Would you sacrifice your mind, your health, and your well-being just to keep ahold of it? Most people would. They are unaware of the severe effects that TV has on our lives and on our future. I think that television should be banned from all American households because of the negative ideas it exploits, the creative minds it destroys, and the growing amount of kids and adults that are making this place a bigger and lazier country. In the last decade, the amount of vioilence on television has greatly increased and so has the number of senseless homicides and suicides in our country. The promiscuity and violence shown regularly on household televisions has intrigues us as Americans and numbed our sense of what's right and what's wrong in society. What shocked us at first has now become customary dinner-time cinema. With the increase in the number of television sets in America, more and more young people have been robbed of their creativity. With TV, hardly anything is left to the imagination. Before the existence of television, all people wre forced to create their own opinions and images of things in their own minds. But with TV, all the images are created for you and almost all the arguments are one-sided. With TV, you no longer create your own ideas; you are told them. Television has a great impact on the health of America. The seductive topics and biased broadcasts shows daily across America are luring more and more people to the confines of their living room couch for a greater amount of time. Inactivity and overeating are a common result of this decision made by adults and kids alike.

Facebook and Student Essay

People use Facebook for many reasons; some of them consider it the vehicle to communicate with their friends, including old friends or current friends; some agree that it also helps them relax when they are stressful; others, on the other hand, might argue that Facebook brings distractions to them (Facebook 101). For instance, my friend, a quite person, did not socialize with people in both real life and in the Internet community. However, after knowing Facebook in a short period of time, he became addicted to it. He used most of his time to chat with friends, to play games, and to stare at his Facebook profile. Now, his friends list comes up to 300 and he daily logs on Facebook from 3 to 4 hours a day. Hopefully, this research of our group will help college students get better understanding of the role of Facebook in students’ lives. Moreover, not only students in general but also people of all ages will gain their cognitive of the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. The research will benefit reader to determine whether Facebook is good or bad for human being. Furthermore, if people use it as a habit or want to check of how frequently they use it, they could apply this research as an important source to figure out whether they are addicted to Facebook or not, or where they are in the rank. Hypotheses: Our research paper is mainly focused on the impacts of Facebook on BHCC students. The effects will be discussed on both negative and positive sides of Facebook. First of all, we predict that Facebook will mostly bring negative effects on students and employees. If they use it so repeatedly, they might be addicted and cause distractions in working or studying. This is already proved in the story of my friend. Secondly, because of the separation of geographies or busy life, people tend to talk less and type more in this modern life. So, we also want to check it out of how many percentages that Facebook occupies our private lives. The last assumption will mention about privacy threat on Facebook. On the other hand, besides of its negative, our group wants to observe how people use Facebook effectively since it is the most useful communication tool to most people. Research Method: Our research was done with the survey format of 22 questions. We developed questions with many concerns about Facebook. All the questions were related directly to our purposes, which are substitution of social life, distractions to school/work, privacy theft, and communication tool. Approximately each category will cover from 4 to 5 questions to get into deep understanding of the aspects. Each of the questions shows the list of answers for participants to demonstrate their thoughts. When we provide the survey to participants, we are not stay close to them to make sure that they could feel comfortable when filling the questions. We are not going to record any participants’ names and to remain them anonymous. To do that, we could get the answers honestly and that would serve the expectation of our group. Participants and Procedure: Our group met several times for the research very carefully to discuss what we would do for the plan. First, we decided to work on Facebook but it was such the general issue for us whether to go on its good or bad sides. Properly, many college students just see advantage sides but they do not perspective of its side effects. Hence, we combined both sides, and decided that we would concentrate more on the negative effects of Facebook. After gathering all the questions of each member, we filtered and arranged them in order in the survey. To collect and choose which questions are suitable for out hypotheses, it took us almost two weeks to come up with all agreements. Understanding that people are hesitating to help our research, the reasons are vary as they are in rush, they are lazy, or even they do not want to listen to what we talking about. Furthermore, we targeted on BHCC’s college student, so we finally chose to go to the BHCC’s library or started with our other classmates to get the results. Moreover, we provided our team members spent a week conducting the survey to ensure that they could do the project thoroughly. Especially, we already created Facebook group account for our members to share, to debate, and to discuss and make sure we were on the right track. Surprisingly, the results came out our pleasure: BHCC’s students were eager and happy to help us when asked to fill out with Facebook questions. However, very few numbers of participants answer our  survey quickly and unready, so we already ignore those minorities. Data Results and Analysis: Our group had a total of 162 surveys, which were added by all of our group members. In our last question we asking people about â€Å"What would you rather describe Facebook as?†, and the result did not surprise us, we already knew that as an assumption. More than half of our participants –118 out of 162 or 73 percent of total result– consented that Facebook as a useful communication too. Some of them added that they used Facebook to communicate with friends and families, to share pictures, videos, status and information, or to kill time if bored; therefore, most of them choose to pick its good side as an answer. The last 27 percent, 44 of 162, chose â€Å"a powerful distraction† as the result (Figure 1). As you can see on the chart (Figure 2), it can explain why three-fourth of our participants prefers Facebook as useful tool (Figure 1). There are so many ways to use Facebook that suite with people interests. The majority of participants use Facebook to check mail, to chat, to communicate, and to update friends’ information as 97 of 497 (19%), 80 of 497 (16%), 75 of 497 (15%), and 62 of 497 (13%) respectively. Besides that, 4% users also log in Facebook for playing games/quizzes, and 9% use it for relaxing when bored. It is interesting that there are a small number of participants – 11 students, approximately 2% in total – choose Facebook as a studying tool. As we mention above, Facebook is also distractive at work and school, and the statistic already proved this. 56 percentages – slightly above half of the percentages — access to Facebook at home, 21 percentages and 4 percentages do that at work and school. The rest 19 percentages access by cell phones; even though we do not know exactly where they use them, we indicate they are not properly use them at home. (Figure 3) According to the results from survey, we divided this bar chart into two categories: addicted group and non-addicted group. The first group includes many times/day, more than 2 hours/day, 1-2 hours/day, and 3-5 hours/week. The other is 1-2 hours/week and less than an hour/week. Both groups have  nearly equal balance about 50 percent each; therefore, we could have more trustful information and it is not bias. (Figure 4) After all, we conclude BHCC’s students are not really addicted on Facebook. They contribute equally in both studying/working and relaxing on Facebook. We agree that Facebook right now is the most popular use in the world and it is on the way growing up, yet it still cannot replace other multimedia communications like phones in general, instant messengers, and in direct with person. In the figure 5, Facebook occupies the smallest percentage in the pie chart with 17%. The next two common ways of communicating with friends are using instant messengers like Yahoo, AIM, MSN, or Skype (19%), and socializing with friend face to face (18%). Absolutely, instant messengers and in person have theirs advantages in communication because we can listen and talk simultaneously, or even we can see our partner faces by webcams. The largest percentage is using phones which are 46%. They are still the most familiar way to exchange all the time by talking and texting. We assume that because of its lack of â€Å"live† features like those above, Facebook still cannot be a substitution in personal life. Figure 6 and figure 7 show us â€Å"How many friends are there in participant friend’s list?†, and â€Å"With how many out of your Facebook friends do you frequently communicate?† People tent to protect their privacies by having fewer friends than ever on Facebook, 53 percentages and 35 percentages are chosen to have less than 100 friends and from 100 to 200 friends in friends’ list (Figure 6). In there, 25% and 50% is the most common rank to contact with friends on friends’ list, approximately 52 percentages. The next best option is less than 25% with 31 percentages (Figure 7). Our results in the survey proved that people do not really want to socialize usually on Facebook; they just need Facebook to relax, not the place for them to put their personal information. In the next graph will show how Facebook users think of privacy when using it. (Figure 8) More than half of our respondents do not want to add unknown people as friends, about 70% (Figure 8). This could be explained, if they add them as friends, they do not contact with them on Facebook, according to figure 7. Generally speaking, people do not want to express themselves on social network. Conclusion: The result of doing this survey gives us better interpretation of how a social network could affect on people life. Especially BHCC’s students, they adopt and love Facebook’s features, but they could still control their time spending on it. Therefore, most of the students consider Facebook a helpful tool to socialize with others. Even though Facebook is good for students to communicate with other people and make their social life happier, sometimes, Facebook appears to be a distraction to their study and private life. Using Facebook too much can make student exhausted and also affect their health badly. In addition, it is important to realize that Facebook is only an online tool, and it cannot replace human being’s activities. Students should allocate their time spending on studying, socializing, and using Facebook effectively, so that they can balance their real life and their online life to avoid being distracted by any network. Limitation: Even our team has done with the research, but it still has limitations when doing this. Due to the lack of processing time and missing experience in each member of us, we extend more time on choosing questions, or picking for secondary research, and then filtering the result as well. The amount of seven weeks seems not enough for us to accomplish a professional research as others. In addition, funding is also significant too. Because we did have any fund for the research, so we mainly focus on BHCC college’s students and limit on the number of respondents. In our questionnaires, we would want to ask more questions about how distractive in performance of workers and students at Bunker Hill Community College, and we desire to collect more information from school staffs and professors. However, our results from the participants are appropriated because of respondent’s excitements and their honest answers. We are glad that they did cooperate very well with us. Works Cited N.p., n.d. â€Å"Facebook- The Complete Biography† Web. 13 May 2010. . â€Å"Facebook 101: Ten Things You Need to Know About Facebook.† EBSCOhost. Ed. Thomas Krivak. Information Today Inc. 2010. Web. 01 May 2010 .

Race Relations Essay

The article entitled â€Å"The state of race relations [Editorial].† was written by M. Fletcher & K. Thompson was taken from the Courier-Journal website http://www.courier-journal.com/ dated January 17, 2010 but was retrieved on January 27, 2010. The article focuses on racial profiling, particularly that of Black Americans by law enforcement. The first point that Fletcher & Thompson makes is how the first year of President Obama’s presidency brought the country face to face with racial schisms as much as it has promoted racial understanding. It is further implied that most Americans do not completely view President Obama as African American, citing that he is â€Å"Light-skinned†, has no â€Å"Negro dialect.† and therefore not subjected to the same police brutality as that of dark skinned African Americans such as Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates was arrested by Cambridge, Mass Police Sgt. James Crowley for disorderly conduct after police were called to his home suspecting to find a black man breaking into the home; Bates did not have his keys. All charges were subsequently dropped. The second point suggests that while the gap between whites and blacks has narrowed in the past decade, racial profiling and the reconciliation President Obama’s election seemed to have promised remains far off. President Obama seems to be what every red blooded American didn’t want in a president: black, little political experience, supposed Muslim beliefs and hope that Americans could become equal in all aspects of society. I am lead to believe the difference between African Americans and Anglo Americans is growing in a positive direction. As with Sgt. James Crowley, the view of black Americans remains relatively the same in a general sense, yet with the election of the first African American as President of The United States, the way law enforcement uses or collects data will be a basis for a unified change in how race is viewed throughout the world. The United States will reflect how those in authority are trained, educated and in cases where wrong doings are revealed, disciplined. No matter what changes are made in our future, wherever race is a factor there will be ignorance.

Ways to Keep the the Neighbourhood Clean

Ways to keep your neighborhood clean and green Good morning to†¦. Today, I would like to talk about â€Å"Ways to keep your neighborhood clean and green†. It is important to keep our neighborhood clean and green. There are many ways to do this but they need to be done correctly. Some jobs we can do are to make sure we clean up our garbage and recycle items around the house. I love my community and I do not like to see it littered and dirty. We need to do our best to keep our community looking clean.Everyday, plants and animals become extinct as their habitats are destroyed by human influence. At this rate, our world will become extinct quickly. Picking up trash when people are out in public would greatly help this situation. It is not hard to find a trash can in parks. Making sure people clean up would benefit everyone. If people see trash which is not theirs, they could pick it up themselves knowing they did something to help the world. You can make your neighborhood a c leaner and safer place by organizing a neighborhood cleanup.Another great way to make sure we keep our neighborhood clean and green is to pick up garbage we find in ditches and highway. This purposes is keeping our Earth healthy. Ways to keep the highways clean are being cautious trash is not thrown out of car windows and going outside to clean up the ditch. Always keep a litter bag in your car so you won’t be tempted to toss unwanted trash out the window. Going out once a week to clean up ditch would not only make it look nicer, but also keep the neighborhood healthy. The litter found in ditches can harm our environment.People need to do their best not to pollute. Prevention is an important step, so set a litter-free example for your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors to help keep your community. Each year, each person uses almost a 100-foot tall Douglas Fir Tree in paper and wood products. There is a great importance for recycling to reduce the amount of trees cut do wn. It is not a hard task to separate your recyclable items from trash items. Recycling would save about 75,000 trees. Recycling is a great way to keep your neighborhood clean and green.Besides that, growing trees and other plants in your community is a healthy step toward keeping your neighborhood beautiful. Take part in an effort to plant a tree along residential streets. These ways about are simple jobs which can make a big difference in our world. If everyone does their part, then we will live in a cleaner and greener neighborhood. Doing these can give people the opportunity to make their neighborhood clean and green so get started today in making your neighborhood clean and green. Thank you.

Crossing Essay

Since the beginning of human life, fathers from around the world have played a vital role in their sons’ lives, whom they have had to learn to fish, hunt and survive in general. It has been crucial for fathers to hand over their knowledge to their sons. Concurrently with the development of human life and its foundation, it has been possible to form a social stratum given that it has been facilitated for some people to make more money than other people have. Furthermore, this evolution was an influence on the family relationship, were the man became the new capital in society, and thus became more important than the woman. As the men were working, the women became responsible for the children and therefore had an enormous impact on the behaviour and upbringing of the children. Mark Slouka’s short story, ‘Crossing’, from 2009 shows a number of these important themes, such as the father/son-relationship and man vs. nature. The protagonist in the short story is the father, an unnamed man somewhere between 30-50 years old. The father finds himself in a small depression: †He hadn’t been happy in a while.† 1. Recently, the father was divorced from the mother of his son, which is shown in his thoughts about whether he had missed his wife or not. â€Å"†¦he hadn’t wanted her back, hadn’t wanted much of anything really† 2. Even though the main character has a guilty conscience, and it seems that he is the one to blame for the divorce – he feels a desire to make things work again – both his relationship to his ex-wife and most important of all, the relationship to his son. â€Å"When he looked at her she shook her head and looked away and at that moment he thought, maybe — maybe he could make this right.† 3. The father comes across as an honest, caring and loving father to his son, and quickly we consolidate sympathy with him as a reader. â€Å"†¦when the boy came running into the living room he threw him over his shoulder, careful not to hit his head on the corner of the TV†¦Ã¢â‚¬  4. The protagonist takes his son on a trip to make up for the divorce and to improve their relationship. The father wants to share some of his childhood memories he had as a young boy with his dad. The main character used to go on this exact trip; therefore, he repeats the same rituals and traditions to give his son the same experience. †This is it, kid, the old man would say whenever they turned off the main road, you excited? Every year †¦Ã¢â‚¬ Almost there,† he said to the little boy next to him. â€Å"You excited?†Ã¢â‚¬  5. As the main character sees  the river for the first time in many years, he is considering calling of the trip – the river is much greater than he had expected from it. Yet, he believes that there is no way out – he cannot turn around. There is nowhere else to go, which could symbolize him being in the middle of something – with no turning back. †For a moment he considered pulling out, explaining †¦ but there was nowhere else to go.† 6. During the short story, the father gives his thoughts and some comments on the things happening, which builds up a thrill in the story. The protagonist points out repeatedly that what they are about to do is dangerous. He knows that he is putting himself and his son into danger, but he wants to convince himself and his son about the fact that he is a good father. â€Å"People in a hurry get in trouble.† 7. â€Å"†So what do you do if you fall? He remembered asking once †¦ – and the old man calling back of his shoulder, â€Å"Do not fuckin ‘fall.† 8. The solicitude of the father reappears as he tries to calm down the boy as he stumbles in the river on their way back. The father knows that they are in a bad situation but he remains calm for the boy’s sake. In fact, the father himself is very scared and afraid of what is going to happened – at this point he has lost hope. Even though, he wants to appear brave and to show himself from his best side, when all he wants is to be a good father. â€Å"He could hear himself, breathing hard. †I’m okay, kiddo. I’m okay. That was not good, but we’re fine. â€Å"They were fine. 9. Since we do not have access to the boy’s thoughts and feelings, Mark Slouka draws a picture of him with descriptions through the father’s mind of the boy. We get the picture of a little fragile boy, who needs to be taken care of by his father. This makes us sympathize with the boy and especially the father, who needs to take care of him throughout their trip in the wilderness. †He tried not to look at the boy sitting where he’d left him on the opposite shore because there was something about the smallness of him in his blue shorts against the bank of stones he didn’t like†¦Ã¢â‚¬  10. There is a third person narrator in the short story, which is attached to the father since we get to know his inner feeling and memories. â€Å"You never see it, he thought.† 11. Slouka places the point of view with the father in order to show us how he experiences the situation of having been divorced, and how he now tries to regain order and meaning in his difficult life. The short story is arranged in chronological sequences, but with flashbacks. The time jumps from the present to the past. The present is in the wilderness at the river, and the past is when the father picks up the boy at his moms, and when he thinks back on his own childhood. The amount of energy used to build up the tension in the story is great. From start to finish, the reader is given a feeling of discomfort, and that something bad will happen. The author achieves this suspense by using the environment and the mood of the story. From the beginning the mood ominous and menacing. Rain, fog and emptiness dominate the description of the environment they find themselves in. In this way, the thrill is build up just as slowly, and as a reader, you are waiting for something terrible to hap pen. †It was raining†¦ [†¦] A black road†¦ [†¦] The line of the open sky in the east was razor sharp†¦ [†¦] The empty road†¦Ã¢â‚¬  12. The river is the main environment in which the story takes place, in and around. The river is larger and more violent than the main character remembers it: â€Å"The river was bigger than he remembered it, stronger.† 13. The river itself show some ominous signs as well which helps building excitement in the story. You always have the feeling that something bad is going to happen. When standing in front of the river, they sees something in the river that looks dead, something that has been shot. As a reader you are left with the question whether they survive the river or not. Furthermore, the ending points in the direction of death. †He wanted to scream for help. There was no one – just the rushing plain of the river, the trees†¦Everything had come together. He couldn’t move. He was barely holding on. There was no way.† 14. In addition, the title â€Å"Crossing† points in the direction of death. When you use the phrase â€Å"crossing over† it is usually associated with death. You will go to the other side. It is a bridge between life and death. The river becomes the tunnel – the question is if they reach the light or survives from it. The ending might seem unfair, tragic and unreasonable. However, the open ending gives the reader a choice of life and death – The author puts the characters destiny into our hands. Even though the story ends up in a bad way to the father and son, the trip has been a journey that has brought the two characters even closer. In fact, the father gets the perfect opportunity to perform the action of being a good parent. The most important thing in the father’s life ended up being the last. The short story shows how little and insignificant man is in relation to Mother Nature.